“The executive is in a position where it is necessary that it makes strong gestures, it is a gesture to absorb the emotion, to react”, estimated M’hammed Henniche, the person in charge of the mosque.
A new gesture of firmness. Gérald Darmanin announced, Monday, October 19, having asked the prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis to close the Pantin mosque, who had notably relayed on his Facebook page a video denouncing the course on the caricatures of Muhammad by Samuel Paty, the professor assassinated Friday, October 16.
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“I asked the Prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis to close the Pantin mosque”, declared the Minister of the Interior during the television news of TF1, specifying that the prefect had to “sign this [lundi] evening his ban “. “Its leader relayed the message which consisted in saying that this professor should be intimidated, by relaying the address of the college”, continued Gérald Darmanin. The establishment will be closed “six months”, he also indicated.
“It may be a gesture of appeasement par relative to the general voltage “, responded M’hammed Henniche, responsible for the great mosque in this city north of Paris. “There is a certain tension so the executive is in a position where he has to make strong gestures, it’s a gesture to absorb the emotion, to react”, he added, regretting that “the fascosphere has taken on such a dimension that the executive is obliged to follow”.
“We have entered a gear, where we are no longer in moderation. We have left in something that exceeds everyone”, said M’hammed Henniche.
The announcement of this closure comes as daily control operations targeting structures or people suspected of links with the Islamist movement have been ordered by the authorities. Since 2017, 356 places of radicalization have been closed in France, said Gérald Darmanin.
